Reply To: Tech info
Hi Don,
Nice to hear from you. I’m probably not the best qualified guy to answer your questions,so maybe people who disagree will pick up on this! As regards hulls, Nick Craig’s Icebreaker is still dominating the UK fleet, but I think that’s because it has Nick driving it rather than because it’s light years ahead of anything else. Terry Curtis is fast in a Australian-built Delf (Jason King?). A stack of top helms have just traded their Rushworths for Idol Composites boats, which are built out of the Rushworth moulds (after quite a bit of work on them!) These boats are also going fast and are regarded as being very stiff, well built and nicely finished. The other new production is by Aardvark out of a mould taken off Nick Craig’s Icebreaker – the only one that’s sailing so far is competitive (as you’d expect!) . Having said that about new boats, Delfs, O’Donnells and Heins are still perfectly capable of winning. My opinion is that none of these designs seem to have the whip hand: good helms can go fast in any of them.
Foils seem to be going to foam-cored glass: light and stiff, from epoxied-over cedar. Sections are stretched NACA, but I believe (particularly for the centreboard) that the fineness ratio is so high that the section doesn’t have much effect on performance: good surface finish and minimising slot turbulence may be more influential.
Masts: Ceilidhs seem to be favourite. The Selden (Proctors) are considered a bit stiff at the top – too much of a struggle for the average helm in a breeze. Might suit you though! Once again though, good helms are still winning with aluminium poles, specially inland, so the new stuff’s good but not magic.
Sails: North and Pinnell & Bax have been the favourites for the last few years with the odd WB (German, I think), but several people now have Quantum sails from Turtle Wilcox’s loft in Potsdam. I wouldn’t want to stick my neck out about which is best. They all thrash me!
Anyway, that’s as good a round up as I can give you of the situation gear-wise here: maybe someone who was at the worlds can give an opinion on how Australian stuff compares with the sort of things we’re using. My opinion (for what little it’s worth) is that the top guys are winning because they’re doing the right things and pointing their boats in the right direction. Nobody seems to have overwhelming boat speed.
cheers,
Dave Cooper
